A wedding in the future
by dr100
Summary: Song of creation invites Pond and Williams to her gathering of significance…  The Doctor's dying days are reaching their end. And with all his friends and enemies returning, the wedding of his most troubled friend is near. After the events of Dying Days.
1. Chapter 1

**The Adventures of the Eleventh Doctor**

**A wedding in the future**

**By Nathan Mullins**

* * *

><p>There was a clatter on the mat below the letterbox in the door. The postman had called. Rory was wrapped up in bed, secretly awake but back to Amy. When she rolled him over, he shut his eyes. She nudged him a couple of times, and he whispered only two words. In a harsh, yet dry tone of voice, Rory Williams said, - "Your turn!"<p>

Amy accepted that it was her turn, and asking her husband was rather lazy of her considering she made him get up around the same hour every morning. It was 8.00am.

Amy ran downstairs, gathering the post from off the floor, and carried it back upstairs while cradled in her arms. All the envelopes were blue, but one. She entered the bedroom, and sat on the bed crosslegged to go through the post she had gathered.

Rory was now awake, and leafing through the post himself.

"One white envelope in but a blue bundle," he said.

"Everything's blue these days, and ever since the Doctor left us behind!" continued Amy.

"So, in all the blue envelopes, we have but one white enevelope on its own, just there on top of the pile of blue enevlopes, as though it's begging to be ripped open first…"

Amy took the envelope in her hands, and ripped at it until it's insides fell into her lap. A small card had fallen from the tattered remains of the envelope, and Rory was the first to reach for it. He read the details aloud.

"Song of creation invites Pond and Williams to her gathering of significance," Rory read, somewhat oddly, thinking whether this was indeed an invitation from his daughter.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" asked Amy, in a muffled whisper. She was aware their bedroom window was wide open, and the neighbour oppisite was mowing the lawn. She was nosy.

Rory silently nodded.

"Yeah, this must be our invitation to the wedding of our Melody…" cheered Amy, all too happy and wanting to express herself, never mind the gossip being spread from door to door.

"What the Doctor was on about," added Rory, somewhat to his wife's delight.

"When is it?" she asked.

Rory checked the card for confirmation of a date.

"Today," he said, trembling with nerves and excitement.

"Who's the lucky man?" she simply had to ask out of nessecity.

"Not the Doctor," answered Rory. He looked up to find his wife with tears in her eyes.

"I thought you'd be happy about that?" wondered Rory, comforting Amy in his arms.

Then suddenly, the door bell went thud, and there was a groan from beyond the stairs and the door itself.

Amy and Rory turned to one another in shock.

"It has to be…" said Rory.

"It can only be…" shrieked an excited Amy.

"He's only broken the door bell!" huffed Rory.

Rushing downstairs, Amy ahead of Rory, together unlocked the front door to reveal… a stranger.

The stranger wore a dark cloak, a kind of robe, with a black hood. He also wore sandals…

"Hello, I'm so sorry to have bothered you, but I wanted to ask if you had received a white envelope?"

"Why yes," said Amy, - "But who are you?"

"Oh, there's all the time in the world to find out who I am, and as for how I know you, well… I'm a friend of a friend who's good friends with your daughter, Melody.

"Then you'd best come in!" said Rory, inviting the stranger in.

"Can we get you a tea or a coffee, Mr…?"

"Oh… good one!" he answered.

The short fellow in the hood and cloak took a seat in the Williams' lounge room, looking out beyond the windows onto their garden. Birds flew past, and a squirrel buried its nuts. He turned and grinned at Rory who sat watching him from the sofa.

Amy was busy in the kitchen, when the telephone rang.

Rory was the first to jump up and answer it.

"Rory… is this right?"

"Right? Yes, you're one hundred percent spot on, I am Rory," exclaimed Rory.

"You don't know me," insisted the caller.

"No, I didn't think so either," he said.

"My name's Sarah Jane Smith, and I'll be at the wedding. Look for me. I will be with three teenagers, and a robot dog!"

"Okay…" said Rory, as the line went dead.

"Who was it?" shouted Amy from in the kitchen.

"Sarah Jane Smith," he answered, turning the corner into the kicthen.

"Two sugars, Mr…?"

She turned the corner of the kitchen into the lounge and tried again.

"Got you for the second time!" was the response from the little man.

"What is it with all these random people calling us today? Sarah Jane Smith calls to inform us of her attending the wedding of our daughter, yet I've never met her, nor heard of her."

"Must be connected to us some how, or how else did she get our number?"

Rory entered the lounge to watch the little fellow once more, when there was another disturbance at the door. Two knocks, and then a buzz from the already broken bell, that now refused to stop buzzing.

Amy answered this time, to find a young woman leaning on the wall on the porch, hands on hips stance and hot.

"Hello," she said, welcoming the stranger. "I'm Amy. Who are you?"

"My name's Martha Jones, and I received an invitation from your daughter Melody who said to drop by…"

"Really?"

Amy called Rory, and Rory told the little fellow to stay put. He ran for the door, and to the side of his wife. He saw the woman on the door step and smiled.

"She says she's a friend of our daughter, and she told her to drop by?"

"Better come along in then," said Rory.

And then suddenly, Amy checked the card Martha had handed her, and, turning to Rory gave him the card to read the message for himself.

"Best get dressed!" he shrieked.

It was 8:30am, and the wedding was at 9.00am. There was only half an hour to go, and as to the destination of the event itself, well… space-time travel was mastered through flight aboard the TARDIS, but until the Doctor called by, adding to the numerous calls and strangers arriving, all present at the Williams' address were pretty stuck.

**To be continued…**


	2. Chapter 2

**The Adventures of the Eleventh Doctor**

**A wedding in the future**

**By Nathan Mullins**

* * *

><p>Amy and Rory, and Martha, and the Monk gathered in the lounge where they discussed Melody.<p>

"Where is she then?" asked Martha.

"I have no idea?" answered Amy.

How long has she been gone?"

Martha persisted in her questioning.

"She's not been gone as such…"

Rory spoke first.

"She's been travelling…"

"…with the Doctor?" asked the Monk.

"No, not exactly," Amy cut in. "The last we saw of her, she saved the Doctor's life, but at a cost…"

"…and that was?" asked Martha.

Rory was about to explain, when Amy squeezed his hand softly, and shook her head.

"Who are you to the Doctor?" asked Amy, speaking now to Martha.

"I travelled with him for a while. But my life was turned upside down, and my family were put in danger."

"We know the feeling," said Rory, while squeezing Amy's hand while she stared back at Martha, almost staring back at herself but through Martha's eyes.

"And what of your connextions?" asked Martha, to the Monk.

The Monk stood up, and his hood fell back.

"Oh, we go back a long, long way," he answered.

"How far back?"

Amy didn't like the Monk's expressive nature. The smirk on his face suggested there was a cruel nature to him.

"All the way back home," he explained. "Now to get an invitation from your daughter who is part Time Lord is something, isn't it?"

Then suddenly, there were only 20 minuets left, and Rory kept the two visitors busy while Amy ran upstairs to change.

"So," he said, starting out on his own. "What were the circumstances he left you both behind?"

He turned to Martha first, who answered, - "It was a while ago now, and I remember the day I was left behind like it was yesterday. There was something missing the first time around. I wanted to know the Doctor, who he was for the sake of our travels in time and space, and when he left me behind to do the shopping again, the washing up, watching the television and visiting family, I somehow felt my life was somehow complete again."

The monk was next, and then it was Rory's turn.

"I never said goodbye," he admitted. "I was too concerned with this great big house, the magnificent car parked outside, and when I re-emerged from my magnificence, he was gone."

"That's the Doctor," mused Martha, much to herself and her new found friends. "He's grateful for the company, for the fun to be had, but when it comes to goodbyes, he just isn't the same. He goes cold."

"He's not changed then, or has he?" wondered the Monk. "The last I saw of him, he was old, thin, and grey!"

"That's right!" exclaimed Martha. The very last I saw of him was when he saved me and Mickey from a Sontaron. He was miserable. He didn't say a word…"

"The Doctor's now squat and never the Doctor you thought you knew!"

Then Rory paused, to find Amy had returned in the most glamerous dress he had seen her in since their own wedding.

"What do you think?" she asked him.

He gulped very hard, taken aback by how wonderful she looked.

"Well," he said, - "I'd marry you!"

And then there was another knock at the front door.

Rory ignored the knocking to show his wife how much he adored her, and Martha took over from Rory's duties and answered the door.

As the gap in the doorframe widened, Martha's jaw simply dropped.

"Martha Jones?"

"Jack Harkness!" she cheered. "You too, eh?"

"Yeah," he said, strolling past and through to the lounge, passing Rory while between the gaze of his wife, failed to notice the newcomer, until Jack tapped him on the shoulder, and asked, - "Can I cut in?"

Martha shut the door after him, and joined him in the lounge room.

"No sign of the Doctor then?" she asked him.

"I honestly thought he'd have called by already!" he said, in his fancy outfit that matched Amy's on an absurd level of fashion.

"Are we all ready?" he went on, rolling up his sleeve, and adjusting the device on his wrist.

"Ready? What for?" demanded Rory, in outrage over the stranger's arrogance and authority.

"For teleportation," Jack continued, while having set the coordinates for Song's big day.

"We're not waiting for the Doctor then?" pondered Amy.

"Yes, I think we should," challenged the Monk.

"But what if the Doctor's not coming?" questioned Jack, in his most authoritative way about him.

"He must come!" guessed Amy, although she was fairly certain the Doctor wouldn't let her down. "Of course he will, he thinks the world of Melody…"

"Exactly," said Jack. "He thinks the world of a loved one whom he refuses to show up for to save her from the misery he too has to face, but not on her wedding day! He wouldn't want that!"

"So we have a choice…" decided Rory. "We wait for the Doctor, or arrive on time for our daughter's big day?"

"What's your decision?"

Jack demanded an answer.

"We wait for the Doctor of course!"

Rory saw jack roll his eyes, knowing the Captain wasn't pleased, but he alone, was certain he was doing the right thing by his wife, and he saw she was pleased.

"Our daughter has made us wait, for so long now," he went on. "We've seen her grow up, we know her inside out, and we know the Doctor! He will show up!"

Rory was sure of that.

**To be continued…**


	3. Chapter 3

**The Adventures of the Eleventh Doctor**

**A wedding in the future**

**By Nathan Mullins**

* * *

><p>Hunched over the console, the Doctor lingered in emptiness and confusion, his gloomy figure a hazy blur as the console room shook and spun in the web of the time vortex.<p>

Dials fizzled and the console hummed while the Doctor leant on a nearby column and closed his eyes. While he had shut his eyes, his figure half shadowed by arched pillars and the rising central column, he gave the idea of a wedding of his friend some thought, some consideration.

The console room was dark and mysterious. The faded lights were dim, and the rising column at the very centre of the inner structure hummed and whined.

"You can do it," whispered the Doctor, as much to himself, and the TARDIS. Having gotten to know her a short while back, the Doctor and the blue box were one another's companions, and while travelling alone, with Amy Williams a success and Rory a rising star, at least he had but their happiness rather than their loneliness to dwell on. Besides which, he was late, for that of his own approaching death.

Meanwhile, on Earth, in a parallel dimension…

The puzzling features of golden strands from that of Rose Tyler lingered into the corner of the Doctor's eyes. This Doctor had always known his Rose Tyler. And now travelling around the world, they had reached their final destination. Utah, where little did this Doctor know he would encounter an astronaut in his future, who would kill him.

The Doctor and Rose had barely aged, and in their time spent together, a child had been born and christened with the name 'Time'. The Doctor had proposed and a wedding date had been set, and while having remained together on a parallel Earth, life was almost perfect, until…

One ordinary day… the post arrived.

Rose Tyler emerged in the doorframe of the study. She saw the Doctor look up the moment she arrived.

"We've had a wedding invitation!" she whispered, as she tread the floorboards.

"Who from? No, wait, not our own, not yet, eh?" he muttered.

"No, but from a Dr. River Song," she said, leafing through the envelope. "It's TARDIS blue," she continued.

"TARDIS BLUE?" bellowed the Doctor. He took the envelope from her.

"Yes," she said. "Is that significant?"

"I've no idea," he answered.

"River Song…" he mused.

Suddenly, a breeze rushed in from the halls, and that familiar groan from that once wonderful blue box.

"It's the TARDIS!" declared Rose, as the blue box finally materialised.

"Yes," muttered the Doctor. "But I wonder who's?"

The doors to the blue box fell open, and in the doorframe appeared a woman.

"Hello!" she said, stepping down from the blue box, a willing hand held out ahead of her, and as she met the Doctor's gaze, smiled.

"Hi," said the Doctor, taken aback. He was expecting somebody else.

"Who are you?" asked Rose. "And where's the Doctor?"

The woman rolled her eyes.

"I am the Doctor," she answered. "Doctor River Song."

**To be continued…**


	4. Chapter 4

**The Adventures of the Eleventh Doctor**

**A wedding in the future**

**By Nathan Mullins**

* * *

><p>"Oh no, I can see that look of yours, that mighty stare you always gave me when I did something wrong…" said River.<p>

She clung to the bar above the doorframe of the blue box, and pulled herself up, swinging off the ground for but mere moments.

"NO!"

She slammed down hard onto the ground, walked right up to the Doctor, until she was almost pressed up against him.

"Haven't we met yet, then?" she asked, stunned and puzzled, and there was an innocence there.

"We've not met!" announced Rose.

"Well, actually, Rose, dear… we have now, and let's not do this, not today…"

"What's today?" asked Rose, impatiently.

"Doctor River Song's wedding day, Rose Tyler, and we're invited!" declared the Doctor.

"Indeed you are, Sweetie!" River agreed. "Come aboard!"

And she turned back to the console room inside, and pulled the lever closing the doors to once the Doctor and Rose Tyler had entered.

Rose was astounded.

"This blue box…" she began, slowly. "…is it yours?"

"Yes," she said. "What do you think?"

"Who gave it to you?" asked the Doctor.

"It's mine," she answered. "I grew it!"

"As a present, to a future you have superior knowledge of, because it was in your future you received this gift, this wedding present…"

River turned to the Doctor, and grinned, almost menacingly.

Amy, Rory, Martha and the Monk, and Jack Harkness sat around a table waiting for the Doctor.

"I said he'd not turn up, didn't I?" Jack piped up.

"He just might, I mean, he's got to, he wouldn't not attend our only daughter's wedding?"

"I know the Doctor," said Jack. "When I last encountered him, he wasn't in the best of spirits. No, something's wrong, Amy!"

"When did you last meet him?" asked Martha.

"Oh, so long ago now, but he was dying. In his eyes, I saw the danger there. He was going to his doom."

"And what's the Doctor like now, Rory?" asked the Monk.

"He's edgier, scarier, but we've seen him die, and not regenerate. We know he dies, and we know when…"

"When?" asked Jack.

"When silence falls and the question is asked?"

"And what is the question?" the Monk asked.

The exchanges had become quieter, and only whispers were just audible above the quiet.

"Oh that?" wondered Amy. "We've been asking ourselves what that might be for years!"

**To be continued…**


	5. Chapter 5

**The Adventures of the Eleventh Doctor**

**A wedding in the future**

**By Nathan Mullins**

* * *

><p>Sarah Jane Smith stood on the door step of her home in Ealing. She smiled, while her good friends, Clyde and Rani joined her.<p>

"What is it? What's going on?" asked Rani.

At once, Sarah looked up, and caught a glimmer of the object that soared through the sky.

"No," she said, quietly.

"Sarah Jane, what is it?" yelled Clyde.

There was silence. Bannerman Road was quiet. The trees had stopped swaying in the light breeze. The dogs made no sound. When they barked, they were muted. The only sound above all else, was that of the wheezing, groaning, struggling engines of that all too familiar blue object.

At once, Sarah darted down the street, and it was up to Clyde and Rani to head after her.

"It's the TARDIS!" exclaimed Sarah. She was staring up, while speeding down the street, with Clyde at her side, and Rani struggling behind.

"So why's the Doctor not stopping by?"

Clyde was breathless, and he pulled on Sarah's coat asking her to stop.

"He must be in trouble!" she said.

Suddenly, she paused at the sound of a mighty blast. An explosion turned their heads.

"He must have crashed!" yelled Rani.

"Come on!" shouted Sarah.

They ran on, until they reached the Doctor's TARDIS.

"Oh no…" muttered Rani, when they reached the scene.

There was smoke, fire, and gas. The Blue Box appeared battered, worn out, and ancient. The doors hung from the hinges. Clyde made a move towards them.

"Clyde… no!" shrieked Sarah.

She dragged him back, and asked Rani to see he stay with her, while she explored inside the blue box.

"Understood!" Rani acknowledged.

Sarah Jane crept inside, and yelled, - "Doctor… are you there?"

The console room was dark, the lights were down, and the Doctor was lurched across the console. He did not move.

"Doctor…" whispered Sarah, slowly reaching his side, touching him, helping him from off the console.

"Doctor?" she asked, firm this time, aware there was something wrong.

When she leant him back against a pillar below that of the console, and on the rails of his ship, she staggered backwards frightened by her encounter.

She had noticed how cold the Doctor was when she moved him. Then she saw his face. He was pale. He was dead.

"NO!" she screamed. "DOCTOR!"

Clyde and Rani ran inside, but in an instant, they met with Sarah Jane and they comforted her.

"Sarah Jane, what's the matter?" bellowed Clyde, as he reached her beyond the doorframe.

Clyde was unable to see the Doctor beyond the darkness, but he gathered all was not well.

He turned to Rani.

"Get Sarah Jane home. I'll be there soon!"

Rani put an arm around Sarah, leading her from the TARDIS, out into the sunshine. Tears streamed down Sarah Jane's cheeks. It was a sad day.

And while Clyde lingered in the doorframe of the blue box, he adventured on until he encountered the Doctor's ragged body. He didn't know how he felt, but knowing the Doctor was dead made him feel so small, so lonely.

**To be continued…**


	6. Chapter 6

**The Adventures of the Eleventh Doctor**

**A wedding in the future**

**By Nathan Mullins**

* * *

><p>Sarah Jane and Rani took a slow walk home. Sarah Jane sobbed into her own sleeve, while Rani was silent.<p>

Then Sarah Jane looked up. She had noticed. About her still, there was but silence. And then the sounds of numerous sirens filled her ears. An ambulance accompanied by police outriders shot past. She turned her head, staring back at them, before turning to Rani.

Rani was saying something, but there was no speech.

"I can't hear you!" explained Sarah, unable to reply to what her friend was saying. "Something's wrong, come on!"

They quickly made it home, and up to the attic.

"Mr Smith, I need you!" she announced, as the wall unveiled an enormous monitor.

"Sarah Jane… there are reports of…"

"We've no time, Mr Smith!" puffed Sarah. "There are pressing matters to be dealt with!"

"I agree," answered the super computer. "There are reports the Doctor is dead."

"What do you mean by reports?" snapped Sarah.

"It would seem the Blue Box has been tracked by Earth Command. Unit are on the scene, keeping news teams back," answered Mr Smith.

"Show me!" she continued, as the monitor's display brought up a new window, that of a news station broadcasting news of the Doctor's crash-landing the TARDIS.

"I don't believe it!" she said, turning from the monitor to her friend. "And what's more…" she went on. "…Rani's speech is no longer audible, but the outside world itself is silent. Can you explain this?"

Mr Smith paused to consider.

"I will scan Ms Chandra," the voice of the machinery answered.

Rani said nothing. Knowing she herself could not be heard was frightening.

"Rani is well, Sarah Jane, which indicates what's behind this wants there to be silence. The Doctor is now silent. Silence will fall."

"So why am I not silent?" asked Sarah Jane.

Mr Smith did not reply.

"I gather I'm important, not to be rude Rani," she said, turning to apologise to her friend beside her. "Why else is my voice being heard?"

"Because you are important, Sarah Jane…" whispered a voice unknown to that of Sarah Jane and Rani. Both turned to face that of the strangers in the attic. A man, who resembled that of the Doctor how he had once appeared, accompanied by a girl who Sarah Jane recognised instantly.

"Rose Tyler, I didn't think we'd ever meet again!"

Her joyous remark was welcomed by an almighty embrace.

Standing in the dark, a shadow cast down from a pillar holding up the roof, and beside that a window with the suns rays pouring in, there stood a woman. An older woman. She emerged from the darkness and into the light.

"Oh you are so important, Ms Smith!" she said, full of wisdom and delight.

Sarah Jane turned to the Doctor.

"What's going on? Doctor… you're dead?"

Sarah Jane instantly recalled her finding the Doctor's body, but he didn't appear as the man ahead of her.

"But how can I be?" he asked her. "I think you've encountered what I believe to be my future self who wasn't him at all. I say him, but he is me, are you keeping up?"

"Just about," answered Sarah.

"Allons-y!" he cheered. "Because he was in fact a ganger," he continued.

"A ganger?"

River continued from where the Doctor had left off.

"Yes, a ganger Ms Smith, but he died, so long ago, and some how brought himself back to life. Being the Doctor, sharing his thoughts, his memories, he was able to do so, but then he was always going to die. The TARDIS, it all went a little wibbly wobbly. I lent him mine, and he melted, so now we're stuck here."

"You had something to do with the Doctor's death?" shrieked Sarah.

"My TARDIS was given unto me as a present from the Doctor. The real Doctor, who's not dead. He knew the TARDIS was unstable. He asked me to give over the TARDIS to his ganger, who we simply had to run into, you know what these fixed points in time are like, and so the engines failed, and he died. It was what the Doctor wanted. He knew there couldn't be two of him running about!"

"So now we're stuck on Earth, on the real Earth, after all we've been through on our parallel world," sighed Rose.

"But now we wait," insisted the Doctor, in his tenth body, the face of a man who perished long ago, but who survived on a parallel world. "Because the Doctor is coming, and boy… is he late for your wedding, Doctor Song!"

He turned to River Song, and winked twice.

**To be continued…**


	7. Chapter 7

**The Adventures of the Eleventh Doctor**

**A wedding in the future**

**By Nathan Mullins**

* * *

><p>A church drifted on its own rock in space. It orbited the seven suns of the sheltered people, and inside, life forms across the galaxy gathered for the most spectacular event.<p>

While on Earth, the tenth Doctor and Rose, accompanied by River stood waiting.

"Can't you help Rani?" asked Sarah.

"Oh… try this," said River, throwing Sarah her sonic from a cabinet to her left. "Turn the frequency up! That should beat 'em!"

Sarah did as she was told, and suddenly Rani was audible again.

"What was that about?" she blurted out.

"Beat who?" asked Sarah.

"The Silence," answered River. "A religious order, who we're running from. Always have been, and the Angels!"

"And sorry, you're getting married?" asked Rani.

"Yes," answered River. "And you're all invited! Sarah Jane, Luke, Clyde, and Rani!"

"To a wedding? That's fantastic, thanks!" said Rani.

"And who else will be in attendance?" asked Sarah.

"Martha Jones, Jack Harkness, and many, many more," replied River, raunchily.

"Well then," said the Doctor, arms around Rose. "Hadn't we better fetch them?"

Clyde appeared in the doorframe of the attic.

"Come on then!" he said.

"We can take my car," insisted Sarah.

Soon, Amy and Rory received a dozen knocks on their front door. On pulling the door forth, they encountered their daughter, in the most beautiful wedding dress either had ever seen, in red, blue, yellow, and green, and pink and all the colours in the universe, beside a girl who appeared much in love with a tall, handsome chap with overgrown hair, a blue pin striped suit and glasses, and at their side, two teenagers and a wonderfully dressed woman in a pink dress.

"Mum…" said River, excitedly on the front porch. "This here with me today, is the Doctor before your Doctor, but nonetheless the Doctor, be him half human, and Rose Tyler. Sarah Jane Smith, and her good friends Clyde and Rani, and…" she paused, until a little yellow, herbie like motor appeared, and out hopped another young lad, dressed for a party. "…Luke Smith," she announced, as Luke joined Rani, Clyde, and Sarah Jane for a team hug.

"And where's the Doctor?" asked Amy.

"He's right here," said Rory, with the Doctor at his side, having entered through the house via the back garden.

"Sorry everybody, big mistake, but then again, I'm not one for making an entrance…" he declared.

"Doctor!" shrieked Amy, running up to him.

The Doctor and Amy embraced, with Rory's permission of course.

"And River…" he said, freeing himself from Amy's grip. "I hear you're getting married, but to who I wonder?"

"Indeed," she said, strolling towards him, her mum siding beside Rory. "To _who_ indeed?"

**To be continued…**


	8. Chapter 8

**The Adventures of the Eleventh Doctor**

**A wedding in the future**

**By Nathan Mullins**

* * *

><p>"Alright," said Amy, creeping between her daughter, leaving her husband's side. "Are you to marry our daughter?"<p>

The Doctor froze. He almost certainly winked at River in the blink of an eye, but Amy had missed that. Rory hadn't.

"You winked at River," he said, crossing Amy's path, now standing in her way. "Doctor… what are you not telling us?"

"The future is as unpredictable as the present, Rory," he answered. "I'm going to die, and I may have no hope left, but…"

"… Are you going to tell us you married our daughter?" Amy cut in.

"I have married your daughter, Amy, so now I want to know why she's cheating on me, and it had better be good!"

"If we leave now," said River, passing Rory to get to the Doctor, - "My reasons may make sense, sweetie…"

"Come on!" shouted the Doctor, gathering some pace as he legged it back to the TARDIS.

The blue box was alive, and once all had gathered about the console, the Doctor set River's coordinates.

"The church," she said. "Seven suns," she continued. "You can't miss them!"

"The seven suns of the sheltered people?" gathered the Doctor. "If they emerge from their shelter, they instantly perish. You may have chosen the most absurd planet to be wed on!" declared the Doctor. "But there's something more to you wanting to be wed in shelter…"

He gave the matter some thought, and then tried to come up with an answer.

"Of course," he said. "You're running from the angels, big ceremony, millions of eyes, they can't touch you, but then we arrive, all of us, and suddenly…"

"We've arrived!" announced Rose.

"Come on," said Martha, leading the party from the TARDIS into the hall of a zillion life forms.

Meanwhile River and the Doctor discussed reasons for a wedding that made no sense. At least not to the Doctor.

"You were saying?" said River.

"The angels want revenge. This event is before the crash of the Byzantium, but they sense our time travelling capabilities. First they lock onto the TARDIS, then there's us. You've brought all my time travelling friends together, so they may feast on us all. Now, I want to know why? And who on Earth are you marrying?"

The Doctor frowned. He saw River lick her lips despicably and he saw in her eyes a twinkle of delight.

"No… second thoughts, hold it right there! There was that moment, when we fled the angels in a future so long ago now, where I confronted a man, an innocent man…"

The Doctor was reminded of a time he encountered father Octavian, just as the angels held him in their wings, just before he died. But there was a time before that, a moment he recalled, not accurate, but almost certainly true of the father himself.

"Are you married?" the Doctor had asked him.

"Something like that…" he answered.

Then it was over. And River cared less. And there was a reason for this. They just hadn't got to that bit yet.

"I married him," whispered River.

"And that changes everything," answered the Doctor. "Because it shows why you rely on him when you call on him and his men, to do battle with the Angels, who you've brought back from the future through all of your time hopping, time jumping shenanigans. Oh River, you may have been conditioned to betray me, to kill me even, but even after I married you, to think you'd changed_…"_

The words he wanted to use failed him, for as he stared into River's eyes, he saw the innocence of a child who became River. He was speechless.

"We had best go through with this," she said. "Your time, as well as mine, is running out."

The pair stepped out from beyond the blue box, meeting the gaze of several close friends and allies, and a man who the Doctor knew would soon face his own demons.

There was a cheer from the almighty crowd as River made haste up the isle, when suddenly… father Octavian snapped. He turned and saw his wife approach him, and then he saw the Doctor.

"Doctor Song, who is this?" he asked, impatient to be wed.

"This is the Doctor," River answered.

"I am," insisted the Doctor. "Now, I want to know what on the seven suns of the sheltered people is going on?"

Father Octavian turned to the Doctor. Quietly, he whispered, - "We married as escort and prisoner. It was the only way to keep her from running away. She idolised you, Doctor!"

"But you've not met me yet, father, so how dare you make that accusation!"

"But I was saved…" declared Octavian.

"No… you died!" retorted the Doctor. "I was there with you, I asked you if you were ready to die, and…"

"… then you left me," sighed Octavian. "You had no intention of saving me!"

"So who did?" demanded the Doctor.

River tapped him on the shoulder.

The Doctor fell silent. He turned to River. Saw she was ready to tell him the truth, but he didn't want to hear it.

Octavian took his wife to be, and marched her up the isle. The Doctor watched in horror as the proceedings unfolded.

The kiss sealed the arrangement, and the Doctor held his head in his hands, fearful of the end result.

"The bond between you and me is now complete, and for the murder of a good man, a man who I have trouble looking in the eye," confessed Octavian, as he turned from his wife to the Doctor down the isle. "While I do, I see the end fast approaching!"

And while the time lines discovered not all was now as it seemed, the angels appeared. They got the Doctor, and he was sent hurtling back in time.

"River!" he shrieked, as time and space and the universe itself suffered a closure to the present, the past, and the future.

**To be continued…**


	9. Chapter 9

**The Adventures of the Eleventh Doctor**

**A wedding in the future**

**By Nathan Mullins**

* * *

><p>There was a cool breeze beneath a blanket the Doctor had found himself under aboard a shuffling carriage. There was a creak as he slowly shuddered sideways, the force of the travelling cart, and when he felt the goods beneath him, he suddenly shivered. Slowly, while still jerking from left to right, the Doctor reached for his sonic screwdriver.<p>

The light from his device was needed to discover the fearsome truth. The caskets beneath him were metal, shiny, and bore the crest of the Cybermen. He jumped back in alarm, the blanket he took with him, until he was almost hanging from the carriage. Almost on cue, the Cybermen leaped from their caskets, arms reaching out, to strangle, to kill.

"Delete!" they chorused, as one by one, they gathered a stance to reach for the Doctor, who had scrambled as far back from the line of Cybermen, when the carriage jerked to a halt. The Doctor fell forwards, as the Cybermen fell backwards, and this quickly gave him the time he desperately required.

The Doctor hopped down from the carriage, on to a platform he recognised as the London Necropolis Station and ran into the cathedral like building beyond. He turned back to the engine, and frowned.

"1854," he mimed. "This is 1854," he said aloud. "The death express, 'the stiffs' express', the transportation of the dead, and I would have been next!"

Then he remembered. He fell through time and space. He was at a wedding, in the future, and it was River's wedding, but he was married to River, and…" The Doctor paused. He was tired. He had been zapped into the past. He knew he had to work out what on earth was going on, but it would be difficult.

But then, suddenly, he smiled. He heard the shrieks of his two best friends. They were close by.

"Rory!" squealed Amy, as she staggered through a time portal from one realm to another, until she clattered into the Doctor, whom she somehow missed altogether.

"Amy?" hurrahed the Doctor, picking himself up, and lending his friend a hand.

"Where's Rory?" she asked him, when as he was about to answer, Rory's own squeal came just in time. He was being menaced by Cybermen marching down the platform, and as Amy and the Doctor ran out onto the platform to save him, they were all suddenly ambushed.

A rather large Cyber squad had located the Doctor and his close allies, and rounded them up, to be taken back to base.

The Doctor turned to Amy, and whispered, - "Any sign of River?"

Amy shook her head, and replied, - "She married Octavian, but somehow the angels missed her. I've no idea why though?"

"Because she's now no stranger to her own time lines. She's married a man who in turn has married her in a time he remembers. He marries River to keep her, for a crime she has already committed, but far back in our own time lines. Basically, until we find River, and change events aboard the Byzantium, we will forever be trapped in this time."

"Any more comforting thoughts Doctor," muttered Rory, - "While the Cybermen have us trapped here?" he went on.

"Yes," said the Doctor. "We can't remain prisoners of the Cybermen. Heck, not even until they begin torturing us. We've got to somehow make it to the Byzantium and oversee events…"

"And what is the Byzantium?" asked Rory, totally baffled by this Byzantium business.

"Oh yes," groaned the Doctor, much to himself rather than his friends. "You hadn't decided on travelling with us then? After we'd travelled there, I stopped back home and asked you on a date, for Amy's sake, not mine," he added. "And that was when we became a family," he cheered, again much to himself than the Cybermen who held him prisoner.

"And that's a problem, is it?" mouthed Amy, to the Doctor who's back was to Rory.

"Bit of a problem, yeah," he said, almost chuckling at his present situation. And then suddenly, ahead of them appeared Jack Harkness, and the Doctor shook his head, in awe, and lack of enthusiasm.

"Hello boys!" he said, greeting the Cybermen.

The Cybermen turned their heads, and then Jack took aim, revealed an automatic scrambler and fired. The Cybermen fell to their knees, their heads exploding. The Doctor, Amy, and Rory joined him at his side.

"What did you do to them?" shrieked the Doctor.

"I destroyed them," answered Jack. "Using the automatic scrambler. It scrambles minds, makes things see sense. When the Cybermen can see who and what they are from within, their heads explode!"

"And that's a Torchwood weapon you brought along with you to a wedding?" pondered the Doctor.

"Hey, as much for the after party than anything else," insisted Jack.

"So now what do we do?" asked Amy.

"Jack, your vortex manipulator please. We need to get to the crash of the Byzantium!"

Jack rolled up the sleeve of his military uniform. In doing so, he revealed the so called device.

"Hold on!" he said.

The Doctor, Amy, and Rory held on tight.

Their next destination, was a time and a place Amy had already seen, well and truly, beside her once raggedy Doctor.

Jack turned to the Doctor, and smiled.

"It's been so long since you've asked me to use it," he said, his sly ways getting the better of him, while he knew the Doctor wasn't amused.

"I'm going to ask you to leave us here," the Doctor informed him, as much a response to his tomfoolery as preventing a collapse of the universe altogether.

"Had I best leave too?" asked Rory, when having looked up to show he really wished to stay, never mind how fearful he was of the Cybermen, and creatures similar to them along the way, he was prepared to do battle nonetheless.

"Yes, sorry," said the Doctor, wiping the sweat from his brow.

The decisions now facing the Doctor were difficult, but had to be to save not only his friends, but the universe too.

**To be continued…**


	10. Chapter 10

**The Adventures of the Eleventh Doctor**

**A wedding in the future**

**By Nathan Mullins**

* * *

><p>"What's going on?" shrieked Rose, demanding an answer. She saw in River a change. Her hair glimmered in the sunlight that shone through to the church from the seven suns of the church itself. There was something odd in her mystical ways. As if by having married Octavian, she had changed in turn, and the angels that gathered about her could do nothing.<p>

"It's like there's a barrier the angels can't pass," piped up Clyde from a seat down the isle.

The angels turned their stone heads towards him, as he in turn grabbed hold of his friends, who passed the barrier beside him. The angels were forced back.

"River…" said the tenth Doctor, in a rough, and horrid voice. "What have you done?"

River turned to him, and frowned.

"Spoilers," she said, gleefully, while those about her shook their heads in disgust.

"Where's the Doctor?" shouted Luke.

"He was sent back in time. The angels took him by surprise. He and my mum, and dad. And Uncle Jack…"

"What?" wondered the tenth Doctor, in awe and amazement. "You can't be serious?"

"Hey, you've a daughter who shouldn't exist at all, from banned technology no less!" River chipped in.

"She's not mine," said the Doctor.

"Sorry," said Sarah, - "…going back to the matter at hand," she continued.

"Yes, indeed!" bellowed Jack Harkness from re-entering the church, hurrying about the rim of the barrier to where gathered about the alter lingered all the Doctor's friends and allies.

In after him appeared Rory, who stuck by Jack at every turn, and every corner. He was furious.

"I thought you said you'd get me back home?" he called after him.

Jack shook his head, and shrugged his shoulders.

"I'm sorry, Rory. There's a time desturbance, probably something to do with the angels, keeping us all in one place and at one time?"

"And what of the Doctor and Amy? Will they be safe?"

"Of course they will, Rory," Rani said, turning from the angels to the nurse while River, Sarah, Rose, and the Doctor discussed options and excuses.

"You see… what I don't get is why before you married, there was nothing wrong, and then until you did, the angels appeared. So this obviously has something to do with this event?" Rose concluded.

"I agree," said the Doctor, hands thrust in his pockets, leaning forward somewhat intrigued.

"So therefore, River, you must know what is going on?" said Sarah.

"As I said," answered River. "Spoilers."

"Might I speak?" asked Octavian, willing to talk.

"Oh, I'd rather you said very little actually," River remarked.

"Why all the need for secrecy darling?" Octavian pleaded. "Why have all the Doctor's companions come to our wedding, when all it is is an arrangement?"

River shook her head, unable to confirm a single thing.

"It's all gone horribly wrong!" she confessed. "I've fought the conditioning. It's why you're all still alive," she insisted, but her story didn't add up.

"We were to become victims unto the angels?" wondered those about her, aloud.

"Yes, it was a trap," she said.

"But as I say, when we married, a barrier able to hold back the strengh of an army was something I bargained for. So then, I would not need to call on the Doctor to save me, when I'd travel back in time to change my own history…"

"But why would you want to do that?" asked Sarah.

"Yes," said Jack. "It's incredibly dangerous. Doing so, would be disastrous!"

"I planned to go back before I was taken prisoner. Avert my own history, to prevent the death of a good man, who invited me to his own farewell ceremony. Boy, I had to pretend I didn't know how it would end, but I did, all along. But this is wrong. There are two time lines running parralel, Octavian."

- Suddenly, the answers she gave concerned only her husband.

"There is an event aboard the Byzantium you die. But I wanted to see my plan through to the very end. You became a tool I could rely on so when events passed, I'd have the freedom to go back in time. In another time line, that of which is shattering this very moment in time, is that we're in at present, but now I have to go back nonetheless, if only to save myself from this…"

"What is this?" demanded Octavian. "What is going on here, River?"

"Soon," she said. "The barrier will collapse, and the angels will feed on those of us who have travelled through time and space. The Doctor and Amy will be trapped in the past forever, and the time lines will combine, meaning the collapse of the future, and that I'm not prepared to sacrifice, for I have seen it and I'm sorry…"

**To be continued…**


	11. Chapter 11

**The Adventures of the Eleventh Doctor**

**A wedding in the future**

**By Nathan Mullins**

* * *

><p>The Doctor and Amy tread the war torn plain of the crumbling landscape after the fall of a ship so important to the time lines. Small fires where the mighty explosion had sent debri so high into the skies had fallen to start afresh elsewhere. Technology had made it to the coeans. And voices of the crew remained constant in the heads of the new comers, as they adventured on into the catacombs and through tunnels on their way.<p>

"Sacrafice is nessacary," they panted, as their deaths soon came.

In Amy's head, she heard the cries for help, the order to turn back, but she could not. Beside her, the Doctor was demanded to accept defeat, but he kept going.

"What are these voices, Doctor?" she turned and asked him.

He paused to consider. He wished to answer her truthfully.

"The angels, I should think," he said. There are two of us in this one time now. Three of me, even," he added.

"The angels? Will they wish to seek us, to kill us, despite us not being from this time?"

"It's a possibility," said the Doctor. "We must reach the deck of the Byzantium!"

The Doctor led the way. He seemed to recall the ins and outs of the mighty forest like surroundings. He held on tight to Amy. He didn't want to let her out of his sight, not this time. And then suddenly, the angels appeared. Not before them, but their previous selves. They watched from a safe distance. But there was some reluctance to attack. The Doctor had had words with Amy. With them, stood River and Octavian, whispering in the shadows.

"This is where we make a hasty retreat," said the Doctor, to Amy. "The angels will have by now sensed we're the most recent beings to have made it through the time vortex. We must hurry!"

He and Amy darted forward, and ahead was the mighty Byzantium.

"Come on!" yelled the Doctor.

Having found a ladder, leading high into the trees and beyond which the sky scraper like ship lingered, Amy called the Doctor over, and he started to climb. She followed him close behind, after realising River and Octavian had come into view beyond, and the Doctor was not far behind.

The Doctor climbing the ladder suddenly stopped.

"What is it, Doctor?" shrieked Amy, clinging to the ladder, almost shaking she was so scared.

"A platform," he answered her. "It leads to there being a gap, a small gap we will have to jump to get through to the Byzantium."

He climbed up altogether, turning to give Amy a hand. Pulling her up, she too saw the gap.

"I'll go first," said the Doctor.

Without a moment's hesitation, he made the jump, slipped, but was able to buzz through to the Byzantium.

"Your turn!" he said, looking up at Amy who was so afraid.

"You can do it, Amy," he said, giving her the confidence to do so. "You and I have defeated the Daleks, saved the Earth from the Atraxi, and we've so much yet to achieve, to accomplish!"

"Doctor…" she trailed off, staring at the gap, that if she wwere to fall through, would see her plunge to her death far below. "I'm scared!" she admitted.

"Trust me," the Doctor assured her. "I'm the Doctor, and you Amelia, can do this!"

And at once, Amy leapt, and the Doctor caught her.

"Told ya so!" said the Doctor, Amy in his arms.

"Come on!" she said. "We must stop River!"

The two legged it down a flight of steep steps, reaching the control room before River, and turned to descover her making an entrance.

Squeezing through a shaft, River emerged completely puzzled.

"But I just left you out there?" she said, pointing back through the shaft, then turning back to the Doctor and Amy.

"Yes, you did," said the Doctor.

"And I was left in a forest all on my own, with Angels all around me, with soldiers there to look after me, who legged it before I did," Amy informed her.

"And how is she here, let alone you, Doctor?" pondered River, the thought of which came out as a fact she refused to ignore.

"We're from the future," said the Doctor. "We're here to save you from what we've seen, a future that's changed because an action you take in this time period."

"What action?" she asked.

Amy was about to explain, when the Doctor cut in.

"Nevermind," he said, when there was a rustle from the vent of which caught the Doctor and Amy's eyes.

The destraction was enough for River to act, but the Doctor couldn't risk his previous self meeting his own gaze.

Amy reached out for River, while the Doctor quickly worked over the switches. The controls were disabled. And suddenly, the Doctor realised.

"Amy, it's the matter transmitter. It's still active. It must be scrambled within the next few minuets. I can work on that until my previous self gets here, but it may take a while…"

"How long?" called Amy, struggling to hold River still in her grip.

"Too long," he answered. He rewired the circuitry, changed the coordinates, when his previous elf announced his presence from the vent, and all at once it was time to leave.

"What about Octavian?" she asked.

"Dead, I think," said the Doctor. When I again rewire the circuitry to save you, I reverse the transmission, or rather direct all the available energy to saving you. We save the past, present, and future!"

The Doctor and Amy made their escape, just as River met the gaze of her Doctor, who took over from the controls to save his friend.

On their way back across the war torn plains, the Doctor Amy smiled. Suddenly, they began to fade away.

"Is this a sign our mission was indeed a success?" asked Amy.

"Could be," said the Doctor.

He grinned, as the mystery unfolded. Their next destination: The Seven Suns of the sheltered people. And the angels had vanished, and the barrier was down. Octavian was no where in sight, and River Song was smiling.

When the Doctor and Amy emerged through the doors of the church itself, there were cheers all around.

"Oh, well done Doctor, Amy!" cheered Jack, patting them both on the back.

"Was it difficult?" asked Rani, interested.

"No, not as such," said Amy.

"Well, she may well say no," said the Doctor. "But had we encountered our past selves, time will have torn apart. We're very lucky!"

"And what of the wedding?" asked Luke, and Clyde, and all the other life forms present.

"The wedding's over, and our being here just a coincidence. Now we return to our everyday lives, not that any of us lead everyday lives."

"Indeed," said Rory, arms crossed, but embracing Amy in his warmth and love, there was happiness to be had, and the Doctor was glad of that.

* * *

><p><strong>Next Time Trailer<strong>

He was restless. Backwards and forwards. The rocking chair was his time machine. He was reading. He was writing.

"It is winter. The sun is not so warm.."

The television switched on. A stranger gave his predictions. The sun would not shine again.

"The forecasters say there is snow on the way, but I think not," he mused.

"This year," he put down in ink. "I have known loss, but overcome grief…"

A tear ran down his pale cheek.

"But I have so much to learn of who I am, for I do not know, truly," he muttered.

"When I do," he smiled. "I shall tell thee…"

His pen rattled across his desk, as he fell into a deep sleep.

**'Bedtime Stories'**

**Coming soon!**


End file.
